"Faith' and 'Belief System'

  As humans, we are ignorant. It is said in almost all the scriptures that, "Man takes birth in ignorance and dies unconsciously, in ignorance'. The cause of ignorance of the jiva is 'ignorance'! Here, the term 'ignorance' is not lack of proper knowledge, but it it is 'knowledge covered by attachment'. It is like the bright sun covered by a chunk of cloud that causes darkness. Thus, ignorance is the inherent aspect of the jiva that comes with desire, attachment, likes and dislikes, anger, etc. It is the quality, guna, svabhava of the jiva  Much of it is attributed to the food that sustains the body. The very first instinct of the jiva is self-protection and this itself is the cause of ignorance! The jiva tries all the means of survival and, in this process it acquires the knowledge of self-preservation. This in effect strengthens its faith and belief systems, such as religion and rituals. 

  We find almost a thousand crores of humans all over the world.  These human communities are separate time and distance. Each and every community has tried ways and means of survival and has adopted different methods. In fact, it is desire and fear that govern these! During the early times, people were afraid of death and feared that the dead would harm them! Hence, they tried to bury the dead within their residence and sleep on the place where they have buried. Later on, they started burning the dead. Some communities developed tricks to ward of fear and adopted magical sounds, fire, worship of st ones, etc. Gradually, the more learned ones studied scriptures and built temples, worship idols, andall that! Some believed in Messengers and some in their elderly trusted leaders and teachers. Thus, we have innumerable castes and creeds, ways of worship and other systems. But the basis of all these is just 'fear' and 'desire'! Why not we live without all these blind beliefs? The answer is simple. Certainly anybody can live without following any of the age-old systems, but for the fear!

  'Desire' is the cause of birth. No desire, there is no cause of birth. Once born, 'fear' follows. Fear comes from desire to possess and loss of what is possessed. These are the inherent qualities of the jiva. survival depends on these two principles. If one has no desire, there is no fear, too! Fear is the product of Mind. A weak mind supports fear and a  strong mind resists it. Hence, a strong will power is needed to overcome the fear and a strong determination is needed to quit the age-old systems. The more the jiva is refined, experienced, the more its power of resistance to blind beliefs.

   Since the process of human civilization is a continuous one, the jiva has to run its course to acquire sufficient knowledge and power to overcome the present systems,